


After Hours

by Ahmerst



Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, hot boss alert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-28 21:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6345757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahmerst/pseuds/Ahmerst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoba has a lot of regrets in life. Interning in Germany is pretty high up there on the list. Even higher up is meeting his coworker’s brother, Noiz.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I never posted this? Incredible.

Aoba wasn’t entirely sure what he expected when he decided to take an office internship, and one abroad at that. He’d built it up as the ultimate opportunity in his head, a way to expand his surroundings while adding impressive experience to his resume. Whatever his original assumptions were, they’d been wiped away his first day.

The closest thing he could currently liken it to was being perpetually assigned to the kids table at holiday dinner. Except instead of the worst thing being getting food on your shirt, you could lose a frightening amount of money.

Everything was so different, so new─ and not in a good way. It was just scary, leaving him keyed up and nervous every night as he went to bed, afraid he’d filed the wrong report, emailed the wrong person, lost an entire account. 

Aoba learned quickly that the language barrier was more of a problem than he’d originally thought it would be. His German was a halting stutter more often than not, the various lessons he’d listened to before his visit proving to be less than useful in the workplace. His belief that the immersion would lead to a hastened grasp of conversation was another overwhelming disappointment.

At least he had Theo. 

Theo, who had been warm and welcoming since the first day, bearing a potted plant and complimentary basket of fruit and muffins. He’d explained the work Aoba would be doing, walked him through it once, twice, three times, correcting but never berating. Sharing a spoken tongue helped, and it was for that reason that Aoba found his homesickness slightly quelled.

Aoba had the sneaking suspicion that─ judging by the late nights he worked─ Theo went over his work with a fine-toothed comb to catch any possible problems. The thought of it alone conjured a mix of appreciation and guilt within Aoba, the latter of which added waking hours to Aoba’s sleepless nights.

He almost thought he’d settled into something that vaguely resembled a groove when he had another curveball thrown at him as he was finishing up his work before lunch. Theo poked his head into Aoba’s cubicle, which Aoba had mentally dubbed ‘The Stress Box.’

Aoba was fairly sure one of his walls was on the brink of caving in, and the only thing more distracting than the often-flickering fluorescent light on the ceiling was the constant smell of plastic. Where it was coming from was a mystery Aoba hadn’t yet figured out.

“How’s it going in here?” Theo asked, voice light and interested.

“Uh, the usual, I think,” Aoba said, writing his signature three times over on a report, the ink of his pen giving out in a new spot in each time.

“Well, at least that’s better than bad,” Theo said. “Anyway─ I know you’re new here and haven’t met too many people, so I figured I should introduce you to my brother.”

“Your brother?” Aoba asked, looking up. Theo mentioned having a brother before, but it had been an offhanded remark each time. Bad ideas were usually involved in the surrounding conversation.

“Yeah, his name is Noiz. He works a few floors up. Looks a lot like me.”

“Can’t say I’ve ever seen him,” Aoba said, setting his pen down.

“He basically lives in his office, so I’m not surprised,” Theo said with a soft laugh.

“What’s he like?” Aoba asked.

“He’s... nice,” Theo said. His lips curved wrong on the second word, like he’d wanted to say a different one.

Aoba smiled wryly, trying to chalk Theo’s falter up to his imagination. It would be good to meet someone new, he told himself. He finished filing the last of his work and tidied up his desk, soon standing and going to Theo’s side.

They only made it into the elevator before his nerves set in. Aoba blamed it on the mirrors within it that reflected him. Beside him Theo was the poster child of an exemplary employee. Eyes bright, suit well-fitted, exuding a certain calmness as the elevator rose. All Aoba could see in his own reflection was the wrinkles he could never manage to iron out of his jacket, the strands of flyaway hair he failed to capture in a ponytail, and dark, worried circles under his eyes.

If it hadn’t been for Theo, he would have been too wrapped up to remember to get off the elevator once the doors opened.

Despite being a single floor up, the hallway Aoba stepped into seemed from another building altogether. The plants that lined it weren’t fake, the floor was markedly less worn that Aoba’s own, and there wasn’t a cubicle in sight. Instead there were honest to God office, with oak doors and gold plates stating the names of who was within.

The door Theo stopped outside of had a placard with a name that didn’t look at all like ‘Noiz.’ Instead it looked like a name that Aoba knew to be one of the higher ups, a name that he hardly wanted to meet while he was still learning the ropes and at risk of losing his internship.

Theo gave a cursory knock on the closed door, not waiting for an answer before he started to push it open. Aoba followed in Theo’s wake. The office was well lit and spacious, the wide windows letting in a flood of outdoor light. On the walls were paintings, honest to God ones─ not just canvas with a shoddy printing job to give it texture. And sitting at the table was definitely someone Aoba had never heard being referred to as ‘Noiz’ before.

“Noiz?” Theo asked.

Noiz looked up form his desk, his green eyes foggy and distracted. He didn’t have bed head so much as still-in-bed head. His face looked too young for this profession, cheeks babyish and full, lashes dark and thick. Aoba had seen Noiz before, on the company website, in the promotional handbook he was given on his first day. Hell, there was even a picture of him in the lobby. It would have been creepy if he wasn’t the founder’s son.

And apparently Theo’s brother. Aoba’s stomach lurched as he made the connection.

“Yeah?” Noiz finally responded. 

“This is Aoba,” Theo said, gesturing for Aoba to step up to Noiz’s desk. 

Aoba’s legs were like jelly as he moved forward, fear sweat beading cold on the nape of his neck. Every automatic function of his body─ blinking, breathing, standing upright─ suddenly became manual and demanding of all his attention.

“It’s nice to meet you, Noiz,” Aoba said, voice far too meek for his own liking. 

Noiz stood in turn, and the handshake they exchanged was barely more than a glancing touch before he was seated again and absorbed in the papers on his desk. It took ten seconds for him to add a belated, “Same.”

Aoba looked to Theo for some sort of sign of what to do next. Theo watched the both of them with tempered apprehension, like he’d introduced two dogs to each other and it wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped.

“It’s almost lunch,” Theo piped up.

“I’m working,” Noiz said.

“You’re always working,” Theo said, the laugh that trailed his words light but edged with irritation. “Why don’t we go to lunch for once?”

“I already ordered out.”

Aoba had never seen Theo make an expression that was anything less than professional. His face always bore a certain stock photo smile that put everyone at ease. But now that smile was faltering, a petulant gleam shining in his eyes. It made him look very young, and Aoba found himself suddenly wondering exactly what his age was.

“Alright,” Theo said. “You─ you do that. Me and Aoba will just go to that new cafe by ourselves.”

Was it possible that Theo was a twelve year old stuck in an adult’s body? The longer he went on, the more it seemed possible to Aoba. He felt like he shouldn’t be witnessing this. It was too human for a setting he’d filed away as nothing but impersonal in his mind.

“You do that,” Noiz said, and that was the end of the conversation.

\---

As it turned out, there was no new cafe. There was an old cafe, and Aoba liked that just as much.

“I thought maybe Noiz would come with us if he thought there was a new place to eat,” Theo admittedly sheepishly, half hidden behind his menu.

Aoba stared at his own menu without really seeing it─ not that he could read it anyway. He was still reeling from the encounter, his belief that Theo was a desk jockey not unlike himself shattered.

“I can't believe this─ couldn't you have mentioned it before? Why isn’t your photo anywhere? Why didn’t you, like, offhandedly give me a heads up that you're kind of a big deal?" Aoba said, too shocked to maintain professionalism. 

“I’m camera shy," Theo said with a shrug. “And I wanted you to treat me like a normal person. Everyone else falls over themselves trying to suck up to me, and I thought it would be nice to get away from that."

Aoba thought of how he would be treating a normal person right now. Strangling them, he decided. Strangling them for putting him in such an embarrassing situation. He wasn't sure Theo would appreciate that level of normalcy, though.

“Okay, how about this," Aoba said, halting for a moment to point at an item on the menu while the server nodded and wrote it down. “I’ll treat you like anyone else. But in return, we pretend none of today ever happened."

“Does this mean I can introduce you to Noiz again?" Theo asked.

“Only if you want to take five years off my life."

Theo laughed good-naturedly as he handed over his own menu. He dropped the topic after that, content to make small talk, speaking of the weather and upcoming events. Aoba found himself growing more relaxed as they conversed, aware of how tight his shoulders were only as he let them slump, his worries that he'd made an egregious error by... what? Existing in front of highers ups?─ ebbing as he picked at a plate of pasta.

Sitting like this, enjoying himself and nearly forgetting what had happened... it was almost too good to be true.

It was too good to be true.

“He’s really kind and gentle,” Theo piped up halfway through their meal.

“I think something is being lost in translation,” Aoba said. He couldn’t really see those words applying to Noiz.

“I mean it─ he’s just... it’s a little hard to get to know him.”

“I get the feeling delivery drivers know him better than I ever could.”

“Aoba,” Theo said plaintitively. “I mean it. He’s not a bad guy.”

“Yeah, I think ‘nice’ was the word you used for some reason,” Aoba said, wincing as he was unable to catch his tongue in time. He hoped Theo’s ‘treat me normally’ request would excuse that.

“He is nice.”

“Can you at least give me an example?”

Theo stared down at his coffee for a moment, expression furtive. Aoba counted the seconds, each one that passed further cementing his impression that Noiz was not someone he wanted to get to know.

“One time,” Theo finally started, “when we were little, we had rabbit for dinner. Noiz didn’t realize it was store-bought and spent two hours in the yard trying to find its babies so he could be their new parents.”

That... was pretty sweet, Aoba had to admit. But children were always kinder than their adult selves.

“Childhood stories don’t count,” Aoba declared.

“Okay, okay. This other time, a guy nearly pushed me into traffic. Noiz punched him right in the face.” Theo made a few gestures to illustrate the event.

“I said childhood stories don’t count,” Aoba repeated, unsure of why exactly Theo thought that experienced was something beneficial to share.

“It happened last month.”

Aoba balked at that, staring in disbelief at Theo. Then what was happening clicked into place, settled in Aoba’s mind as he saw it in a new light.

“Oh,” Aoba said softly, voice filled with a quiet surprise. “I get it, I think.”

“You do?” Theo asked, expression lighting up.

“Yeah. It’s like, the whole reverse psychology thing, isn’t it? You’re telling me all these things and pretending they’re good so that I’ll stay away him.” Aoba knew Germans were weird, but this took the cake.

Theo’s face fell, disappointment softening the hope that had been there.

“Maybe you’re right,” Theo said, flagging the sever for their check. “Maybe we should pretend today never happened.”


	2. Chapter 2

Aoba was happy to pretend that he never met Noiz. In fact, he was happy to pretend the floor that Noiz’s office was on didn’t even exist. The problem was that being happy about it didn’t mean he was any good at it. No matter how well he repressed the memories at work, they eventually came creeping back, surfacing as he was washing his hair or about to sleep.

With Theo as his only friend, and time zones proving it difficult to talk to those back at home, Aoba was running out of ways to distract himself. So when Theo came to his cubicle with a sign up sheet in hand and an explanation that there was an upcoming gift exchange for the holidays, Aoba readily agreed to participate.

He wondered who he’d end up getting a present for. It became the new thing his thoughts went to when he was alone. He imagined all the possibilities of who he could get, and conjured up lists of presents. He created imaginary conversations in his head, running through them each time. Each inner production was perfect.

When Theo came back to Aoba’s cubicle the next week with an envelope, Aoba wondered what could be inside of it. Then he saw the letter, the name written on it making his blood pressure spike and his mouth go dry. His eyes moved over the name two more times before he looked up. Theo was watching him expectantly. 

“You did this on purpose,” Aoba said.

“I did this on purpose,” Theo reaffirmed. “Let me know if you need any help picking out his gift.”

With that Theo was gone, leaving Aoba to look once more at the name he was so desperately trying to forget.

\---

“I think I’m going to take you up on that offer of help for picking out Noiz’s gift,” Aoba said over lunch the next week.

“About that,” Theo started. “I changed my mind a little bit.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

“Well, I know I offered it to begin with─ but think about it, if I tell you what to get it won’t be all that heartfelt.”

“I’m not sure why ‘heartfelt’ and ‘office gift exchange’ would ever go together,” Aoba countered.

“You’ll figure out something,” Theo said, waving away his hand as if to shoo the topic away. “Before I forget, I have to leave early today for a dentist appointment. Think you can deliver some files for me?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Aoba said, not thinking much of it.

He regretted accepting the task once Theo stopped by his office an hour later with a folder to drop on Aoba’s desk. Aoba saw the name written on it and could do nothing but level Theo with a dead-eyed stare.

“Is there some kind of office hazing ritual I’m unaware of?” Aoba asked.

“If there is, it’d be my first time hearing about it,” Theo said. “Think of it this way, it gives you an excuse to see Noiz, and maybe you’ll get an idea of what gift to get him.”

Aoba was unable to see the situation with the same positive light, but he committed himself to the errand regardless as Theo left. Not that he committed to performing it in a timely manner. By the time he’d steeled his nerve to deliver it, the sun had dwindled to nothingness, not a trace of its setting left in the sky, the cubicles that flanked Aoba’s now empty and quiet.

Passing by a coworker scrambling to leave, Aoba took a steadying breath as he stepped into the elevator. The music that was piped in was hardly audible over the sound of his own pulse in his ears, his stomach lurching in time with the elevator when it halted at Noiz’s floor. It was similarly empty to Aoba’s, and relief had started to snake its way into Aoba’s blood when he saw Noiz’s door.

It was half open, light spilling out from it into the hall.

Aoba checked his watch. This couldn’t be right─ Noiz couldn’t still be in the office, not this late at night. It had to be a janitor, or security.

But as Aoba found himself peering into the doorway, he saw it was neither.

Noiz sat at his desk, a book laid out in front of him. Unsure of how to interrupt, Aoba didn’t. Instead he watched as Noiz read the same page again and again, never turning to a new one. Or maybe he wasn’t reading at all. His eyes didn’t seem to move, instead glazed over and barely blinking.

Accepting that there was no artful way to go about his delivery, Aoba cleared his throat softly before asking, “Making much progress?”

“I will once you’re done distracting me,” Noiz said.

Aoba was glad Noiz didn’t look up and catch his bewildered expression.

“I─ sorry. Your brother asked me to give you this,” Aoba said, stepping forward and handing the folder to Noiz.

Noiz took it only to set it down on his desk without sparing it a glance. Instead he looked at Aoba, face impassive. Not wholly unpleasant, simply observant. Aoba would have considered him handsome if Noiz didn’t have the kind of stare that made Aoba reflexively defensive. There was a distinct lack of blinking on Noiz’s side that wasn’t helping.

“Do you drive home?” Noiz asked.

Aoba frowned, shaking his head. “No, I take the metro home.”

“I’ll give you a ride home,” Noiz said.

Aoba wondered for a fraction of a second if there was another person in the room. But no, it was him and Noiz, alone for the first time. 

“It’s fine,” Aoba said quickly, waving Noiz off. “I need to get going anyway.”

Noiz’s expression went from passive to a unique sort of perplexed. The kind of look a child would have when they realized they were being told ‘no.’ Aoba imagined ‘no’ was a word Noiz didn’t run into all that often with his position in the company. Aoba really hoped the followup to Noiz’s expression wouldn’t be the usual tantrum that kids tended to throw.

 

“I’ll give you a ride home,” Noiz repeated. His tone wasn’t any different from before. It had never been a request to begin with, merely a statement of fact.

Considering it a blessing that Noiz hadn’t gotten any moodier than before, Aoba caved. “Well, if it’s not too much to ask.”

Aoba expected Noiz to finish up with work after that. To set his papers aside and put down his pen. Noiz did neither, his eyes returning to the folder Aoba had given him, flipping it open and glancing over the contents. He spent all of half a minute on it before he moved onto a new set of paperwork.

Resigning himself to being stuck at the office for who knew how long, Aoba sat in the chair before Noiz’s desk. It was stiff, overstuffed, and judging from the small mote of dust that appeared when Aoba sat, barely used. Aoba didn’t have a hard time imaging that Noiz didn’t get many visitors that stuck around.

Busying his fidgeting hands by clasping them in his lap, Aoba glanced around the room. There wasn’t much in the way of personality among the certificates of various achievements hung on the walls. A large book case was lined with titles he couldn’t make out, a pair of bronze rabbits displayed on one of the shelves. It made Aoba think back to the story Theo had told him about the rabbit dinner from his childhood. 

“So what is it you do?” Noiz asked.

“What... do I do?” Aoba said.

“What’s your job,” Noiz clarified. He was finally organizing his papers into a neat stack, looking up at Aoba with half-bored eyes.

“Oh... uh. Paperwork stuff, I guess. You?”

Noiz paused to think for a moment before answering, “Paperwork stuff.”

For a moment Aoba thought he was being mocked, but Noiz’s expression was cool and aloof with no sign of sarcasm. Aoba supposed it was an honest answer anyway. ‘Paperwork stuff’ likely covered the majority of the jobs in the building. And the way he thought it over first before he spoke... it struck Aoba that maybe Noiz hadn’t been asked it before, didn’t know how to respond. 

As he stood with a sigh, Aoba could see Noiz’s youth in the low light. But there was something off to it, a tiredness. Like a child that was made to grow up too fast. Perhaps it wasn’t that he was cold and hardened, but simply someone that never learned how to interact.

Ugh, no. Aoba shook his head as he stood. Noiz was his boss. He was also totally weird and probably an egomaniac. Aoba had to stop all of Theo’s sweet talk about Noiz from softening him up. His mission was to survive getting home, figure out what the hell constituted a decent gift, and then avoid Noiz for the rest of his life. 

Surviving getting home didn’t seem entirely doable as he got into the elevator with Noiz. Aoba didn’t know what to do with his eyes, his body─ his very presence. There was no elevator music piped in as they descended, only the sound of their breathing, the slight rustle of their clothing. Aoba stared at his own reflection, sullen, silent, and most of all, stressing.

The only thing harder than talking to someone you didn’t like much was talking to them in an elevator. Not even the most simple of small talk came to him. No comments on upcoming weather or mention of holiday plans, nothing but the awkward air hanging between them and the low hum as the elevator passed floor after floor.

This would be on his quarterly review, Aoba was sure of it. Withdrawn and uncommunicative. Not a team player. Up for the chopping block.

Aoba gave a slight start as the elevator came to a halt before the doors opened. The underground parking lot was nearly barren due to the late hour, and Aoba blinked owlishly as he stepped out of the elevator, glancing around to see which car was Noiz’s. 

“You’re so high-strung,” Noiz remarked. “Afraid you’ll get jumped down here?”

“It’s not that weird to get creeped out in this sort of place,” Aoba countered. Not that he’d been afraid of that. All anyone would get off him was old train stubs and spare change, but he’d take any excuse he could get for his nerves. 

“Tch,” Noiz said, clicking his tongue as he strode by Aoba. “Acting like I wouldn’t be able to take them on.”

“You don’t have to get so hotheaded about it,” Aoba said under his breath, following Noiz toward a secluded area of the lot. He could see a single car in the corner, dark and sleek. Costly.

“If you’re so unconvinced, I’ll prove it to you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Fight me,” Noiz said as they reached the car.

“I’m... I’m not going to fight you,” Aoba balked.

“Why not?” Noiz asked.

“Because I don’t want to fight you, I want to go home.”

“Fine, fine,” Noiz said, eyes dulling with disappointment. “But next time I won’t let you off so easy.”

Aoba tried not to think about what that meant as the taillights of the car flickered on and off as Noiz unlocked it. But as Aoba went to open the door, Noiz was faster. Their fingers brushed for the slightest second as Noiz gripped the handle, a surprised shiver zipping up Aoba’s arm.

Aoba wanted to say sorry as Noiz opened the door for him, but he wasn’t exactly sure what he was sorry for. So instead he mumbled his thanks softly as he got into the car, buckling himself in as the door shut. He glanced around as Noiz made his way to the driver’s seat, taking in the leather interior and minimal aesthetic of the dashboard.

A lucky rabbit’s foot hung on the rear view mirror, and as Noiz’s hand reached up to adjust the mirror, Aoba caught sight of a series of small pink scars on his hand. They were deliberate and organized. Aoba wondered what caused them.

“It’s fake,” Noiz said, starting the car.

“Fake?” Aoba prompted, unsure of if Noiz had caught him staring at the marks.

“The rabbit’s foot,” Noiz clarified. 

“Oh,” Aoba said blankly. “That’s good to know.”

Aoba gave Noiz his address as they pulled out of the underground lot and onto rain-slicked streets with sparse traffic. The heater hummed along and heated the car as obscure dance music played over the stereo. The smooth road and the warmth were quickly making Aoba drowsy, and he leaned his forehead against the window, letting his eyes close as his breath fogged the glass in small puffs.

In the next instant Aoba was nearly lurching from his seat, the seatbelt locking as his body fell forward, cold air striking his face. He let out a choked yelp as he blinked his way into awareness, sitting back as his muscles tensed. He took two shallow breaths before he realized his door was open. And that Noiz was standing outside it.

“We’re here,” Noiz said flatly.

“No kidding,” Aoba said, giving Noiz an incredulous look. “Couldn’t you have given me a little warning?”

“I didn’t know how to wake you up.”

“So you did... this?” Aoba asked, gesturing at the open door before unbuckling himself. 

“Yeah,” Noiz said.

Aoba supposed the technicalities were in order. Noiz hadn’t woken him up. The sharp drop had. 

With a sigh Aoba managed to unbuckle himself, thoughts still heavy with exhaustion. He mustered the most passable smile he could as he got out.

“Thanks for the ride,” Aoba said, suppressing a yawn. “I’ll see you at work.”

“It’s on my way home anyway,” Noiz said, ignoring Aoba’s parting words as he walked alongside Aoba.

Noiz followed Aoba not to the front of his apartment complex, and not the elevator within. He walked the long corridors with purpose, and only when they reached Aoba’s front door did he stop. Aoba wondered if Noiz was going to invite himself in, but when Aoba opened the door Noiz made no motion to follow.

“Well, uh...” Aoba started, frowning to himself. Had Noiz really walked him to his door like some kind of old school gentleman. “Night?”

“Night,” Noiz echoed, nodding in a parting gesture before Aoba was closing the door.

Aoba had to admit to himself that maybe Theo was right. Maybe Noiz actually was a teensy bit nice. Aoba decided to sleep on the events that had transpired before he made up his mind, still wrestling with his own opinion as he shuffled through his small apartment, toeing off his shoes and shrugging off his work clothes.

He was halfway through brushing his teeth when he checked the clock, his mind stuttering when it that nearly two hours had passed since he left work with Noiz. Even by train, it never took Aoba more than half an hour to get back. Aoba stared dumbly at the hands on the clock as the white foam of his toothbrush dripped from the corner of his lips.

How long had he been asleep in Noiz’s car?

Resurfacing in his mind were Noiz’s words.

I didn’t know how to wake you up.

Aoba groaned as he rinsed his mouth out and splashed his face with water. This was it, the undeniable proof that Noiz was nice─ if not in a strange way. He’d wait to tell Theo though, already knowing he’d never hear the end of it.


End file.
